Between the two Mercedes at the start, Daniel Ricciardo believes Red Bull can still have a big say in outcome of Singapore GP as he bids to end two-year victory drought
Monday 19 September 2016 14:17, UK
Mercedes' qualifying performance may suggest they have cured their Singapore woes of 2015, but Daniel Ricciardo insists Red Bull still have a chance of defeating F1's world champions in Sunday's race.
Twelve months on from qualifying 1.5 seconds adrift of pole at Marina Bay, Mercedes outpaced nearest challengers Red Bull by half a second on Saturday, with Nico Rosberg producing what he described as one of his "top three laps ever" to head the grid.
However, with Lewis Hamilton hobbled by set-up problems, Ricciardo stole in to take the second front-row slot and split the Mercedes drivers and title rivals.
And Ricciardo, whose team-mate Max Verstappen starts just behind in fourth, believes they can make their presence felt across what is usually a demanding 61-lap night race.
"We've created a good opportunity starting on the front row," said Ricciardo.
"Our race pace was pretty good yesterday. Here track position can dictate a lot and safety cars as well. We're in a good position. Hopefully for our sake it's a new winner [in Singapore]."
Even if he does not jump Rosberg at the start, Ricciardo could theoretically lead the race inside the opening 15 laps after Red Bull threw a strategy curveball and went through Q2 on the supersoft tyres, the only team to do so.
While Ricciardo and Verstappen are therefore locked in to starting the race on the red-marked tyres, Mercedes will start on the faster, but less durable, ultrasofts - increasing the likelihood that Rosberg and Hamilton will have to pit before the Red Bulls.
"It was always the plan, even before the weekend," said Ricciardo. "We expected other teams to do it as well.
"It's a bit like Monaco. We did that thinking it would be the right thing, then we didn't get a chance to see it with the wet start. But it's going to be dry here so we'll get a chance to see if it works."
With all eight Singapore GPs having featured safety cars, and the omnipresent heat and humidity of the city-state making tyre management difficult, even Pirelli admit that expectations of a two-stop strategy cannot be banked upon.
If tyre wear does prove an issue, both Mercedes drivers have the option of completing two stints on the soft tyre to the end of the race, but Red Bull have only one set of the compound still available on both their cars - potentially locking them in to a more aggressive strategy.
In Friday's long runs, Ricciardo was the quickest of anyone on the ultrasoft tyre and also showed consistent speed on the supersoft.
